John McIntyre at You Don't Say, intrepid copy editor at the Baltimore Sun, is having something of a cow about Wikipedia. In this post, Wikipediaphilia, he inveighs against the "self-correcting" nature of this Internet font of wisdom, arguing that the massive number of errors and the instability of entries that anyone can correct should provoke skepticism, rather than blind faith.
This seems like good advice; I generally link to Wikipedia entries only if, after reading them, I'm pretty convinced that the content is useful and generally correct. If I have marginal knowledge of a topic, I'll usually link to something more reputable.
Of course, the question is, where do you go if not to Wikipedia? I pretty much flail around, at least after checking my own library (that's right, I own actual books with information in them). Fortunately, McIntyre helps us out here in a subsequent post, References you can trust. I won't repeat them here, but he offers about 10 links he finds reliable. So add those to your bookmarks, I have.
This seems like good advice; I generally link to Wikipedia entries only if, after reading them, I'm pretty convinced that the content is useful and generally correct. If I have marginal knowledge of a topic, I'll usually link to something more reputable.
Of course, the question is, where do you go if not to Wikipedia? I pretty much flail around, at least after checking my own library (that's right, I own actual books with information in them). Fortunately, McIntyre helps us out here in a subsequent post, References you can trust. I won't repeat them here, but he offers about 10 links he finds reliable. So add those to your bookmarks, I have.
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